Sunday, 17 February 2013

The standout at last year’s SPOT Festival in Denmark
were Papir, an instrumental trio that didn’t initially feel as though they
ought to be there. Powerful and immersive, the only Nordic things which came to
mind to measure them against were Swedish progg and the Supersilent/Rune
Grammofon Norwegian end of things. At that point, Papir seemed on their own -
at least in Denmark. Then there were thoughts of Ash Ra Temple.

Their third album, the terrific III, has just been
issued by the fascinating El Paraiso label and it’s as sinuous, psychedelic and
densely shaded as they were live. Each of the five pieces on the album doesn’t
have a title - Papir III: I, Papir III: II and so on (no Roman numerals). Papir
are Christoffer Brøchmann (drums), Christian Becher Clausen (bass) and Nicklas
Sørensen (guitar).

From the suburbs of Copenhagen, Papir coalesced as
an instrumental outfit in 2008. They met at music school. All three had played
in bands beforehand.

III is a blast, a full-on expression of band at one
with what they’ve decided to do. Papir’s grasp of texture makes the louder
passages more impactful while, although they are highly technical musicians,
there’s nothing flashy. Balance is partly what it’s about. Structure too.

Yet, however great the album and their extraordinary
live shows (well, ok, I’ve seen just the one), the question about place
remains – they don’t seem to be part of the international post-rock,
instro-rock world or post-Krautrock, post-Tortoise scene.

Perhaps that’s partially do with not being about
musical architecture (like Explosions In The Sky) or perhaps it’s simply to
do with being one-offs in Denmark? Either way, the release of III offered an
opportunity to check in with Christoffer.

Asked if Papir slot into anything Danish,
Christoffer says “in a way we are a one-off, or at least we don’t know anyone
here in Denmark playing the same blend of instrumental music as we do. But we
do share some ideals about the approach to making instrumental music with our
label mates Causa Sui - a musical friendship based around a common spirit.”
Papir’s members also play informally with Electric Moon, Øresund Space
Collective and the El Paraiso Records Ensemble.

The pieces evolve from, as Christoffer explains,
“listening to each other. Even though we all have a passion for diving into
more uncertain free form or jamming territory, we have been playing together
for so many years we have come to reach a common and intuitive understanding of
creating music together. We start out by recording some free-form jams. Then we
listen through these recordings and pick out the parts we find interesting - if
there are any. Then we start to jam from these selected parts and record the
jams of these selected parts. We then usually go on to a process of working
with the form and the structure and in the end the jams evolve into more
composed pieces. But we always try to keep improvisation important to the
pieces. When playing live, we sometimes like to try out unfinished pieces and
see where it goes. Some pieces are often completed in the studio.”

Contrary to the impression from SPOT, where they
didn't easily rub musical shoulders with others playing, Papir do have an
audience at home. “We don’t have many fans compared to mainstream artists,”
says Christoffer. “But our last two records are now sold out and it looks like
a lot of people have already pre-ordered the new album. In January, we played
our first concert in half a year in a small club and the place was totally
packed and we sold a lot of records.”

As to why they decided to be an instrumental band.
“When we had a lead singer it always felt natural to just jam,” says Christoffer.
“When the last singer left, it felt natural for us to go on as an instrumental
band. Playing with a lead singer there are some pretty boring conventions
connected to the roles of the different instruments. We find ourselves better
off without those conventions, accommodating more freedom, focusing on the
interplay and collective energy, releasing more space to explore
non-hierarchical structures.”